From inside the flap

While traveling to the airport after visiting his close friend Julian, Manuel GonzŠlez meets an intriguing divorcťe when his vehicle collides with a moose during a near-blizzard. Invited to take shelter from the dangerous storm by Alison Haldane, a self-reliant ranchwoman, Manuel, who for many years has led a brigade of mercenary soldiers, performs a service that his hostess regards as the saving of her life. Drawn to the woman whose courage and forthrightness he deeply admires, Manuel frankly admits that he is a member of the Order of the Black Lily, and explains the special nature of his tastes in sensual pleasure.

When his hostess forthrightly apprises him that even though she possesses masochistic tendencies, she nonetheless fears that if he were to inflict too great a degree of pain, so that the agony exceeded the pleasure he conferred, she would suffer emotional damage, Manuel offers her assurances that persuade her to yield to him. The two mature sensualists enter a sexual relationship that soon grows deeply satisfying to both. They soon fall deeply in love, each with the other.

Having accepted her loverís invitation to live with him at his headquarters while he and his partner do the work entailed in dismantling their business, Alison meets Manuelís business partner, Hector MacFarlane. Unsure how this slim, sardonic athlete regards her, she grows further disconcerted when Manuel tells her that Hector will oversee a program of exercise for her, during the weeks to come. During the days that follow, Alison grows ever more fascinated by Hectorís personality, even as Manuel conducts an abbreviated initiation of a most promising probationer, utilizing the erotic arts practiced by members of the Order.

Needing both his partner, with whom he has long planned to collaborate on a home-based consulting business once he retires, and his new love, whom he regards as a treasure thrown into his possession by capricious Fate, Manuel devises a daring plan that he swiftly implements, so as to insure that his love for Alison does not fatally complicate his relationship with his friend, business partner and fellow master.

A crisis looms, when three associates grow ever more deeply enmeshed in a triangular friendship. Sexual desire flares between Hector and Alison: desire that both deeply honorable friends regard as illicit. Well aware of this development, Manuel resolves the seemingly insoluble problem in a most unconventional manner.

Eternal Triangle (Excerpt)

Chapter One

Snowflakes drove with wind-propelled force against the sport-utility vehicle negotiating the winding two-lane road leading to the main highway. The driver, a tall man broad of shoulder and massive in bulk, slowed to an even greater degree as the speed of the gale palpably increased, and the visibility worsened. Muttering a socially unacceptable epithet, he squinted against the all-enveloping whiteness, glad at least that he seemed to be the only damned fool driving through what he mentally classed as a blizzard, but which the locals termed an early fall storm.

Even as he drew that conclusion, he spied movement. A heavy-duty pickup truck appeared some distance ahead, to his left. Topping the hill it just climbed, it increased its speed. Fearing that the driver might skid out onto the road he traversed just as he got to the intersection, he slowed a trifle, his eyes swiveling between the road ahead and the other vehicle, rather than checking out the thick stand of willows growing beside a ditch just inside the barbed wire fence bordering the right side of the road.

At that juncture, a huge black shape burst out of the willows, cleared the fence, and plunged across the road, directly in the path of the oncoming SUV.

Jamming his foot on the brakes, the driver felt the vehicle skid, and then slam with sickening force into the moose. The impact caused the body of the unfortunate animal to leave the ground, and light on the hood. Its feet struck the windshield, shattering the glass. One forefoot penetrated, causing a shower of razor-sharp fragments to implode into the interior. That foot withdrew, but all four hooves again impacted glass and metal as the frantically struggling beast slid off the slippery surface to land with a dull thud on the snow-covered road.

Restrained by his seatbelt, so that he escaped being hurled against the disintegrating glass, the occupant threw up a muscular left arm to protect his head, even as he sought to avoid a collision with the pickup. Pain stabbed him, as a spear-like shard penetrated his coat, and slashed his arm. Blood welled from the cut, staining the fabric. The vehicle slid to a halt before it reached the intersection.

A luridly obscene expression escaped the man clamping a huge right hand over his injured left forearm, despite his relief at seeing the pickup stop dead in its tracks at the junction of the two roads. As he watched, the door on the driverís side opened, and a slim figure bundled in a down coat and a woolen hat leaped to the ground, and raced through nine-inch-deep snow towards the wreck.

On seeing the other driver approach, the injured man rolled down the window, only to find himself facing the business end of a .30-06 hunting rifle.

"Donít move a muscle until I see who you are!" That sharp command he saw to be uttered by an armed woman.

Mystified by her action, the traveler froze, relieved to note that the hands holding the weapon nowise trembled. Just as he prepared to reason calmly with her, she lowered the barrel, and offered an explanation.

"Youíre not who I thought you might be," she asserted evenly, in a flatly unapologetic tone. "But I couldnít take a chance. If you had been listening to the local radio station, youíd have known that three convicts just broke out of the State Penitentiary-men who grew up around here. The Sheriff warned the public that he expects the escapees he knows to be armed to show up in the County. But theyíre short and skinny-two sandy-haired brothers and their equally scrawny blonde cousin. Youíre as dark as theyíre fair, and twice the size of any two of them."

Shock arising from this womanís willingness to confront three armed men mingled with wry amusement. She doesnít seem to find my aspect the least bit daunting, he ruminated, conscious that his seamed face, brown as oiled hardwood, added to an imposing size and a slight Castilian accent, might well spark fear in a woman already on edge from knowing that three escaped felons lurked in the vicinity.

Having marched around to the passenger side of the vehicle, where the moose lay feebly twitching, the woman put a well-aimed shot into its head, killing it instantly.

Returning to the window on the driverís side, the shooter announced firmly, "What I just did violates state law, but I couldnít let the poor thing suffer. Youíre supposed to call the Department of Game and Fish, wait for one of their officers to arrive, and let him put any animal injured on the road out of its misery. But Iíll bet my boots that this roadís closed now between here and the highway leading to town, so it might be several days before one of them could get here. If any question arises, Iíll take the blame. Iíll make damned sure they donít try to pin it on you. So. Youíre hurt. Let me look at that arm." Yanking open the door, she inquired briskly, "Have you got a first-aid kit?"

Incipient outrage generated by the womanís imperious manner swiftly gave way to admiration for her decisive handling of a situation that would have caused a good many women to grow hysterical. "Itís under the passenger seat," the traveler replied equably, his hand still clamped over his slashed arm.

Snow pelted the man stepping out into the road so as to remove his coat more easily. Tossing the garment into the back of the SUV, he bared the forearm, which he saw to sport a long, clean cut parallel to its length.

"Youíre lucky," the woman opined as she deftly cut a short piece of adhesive tape, and snipped two triangles from its center. After twisting the strip, she blotted the blood from the wound, held the edges together, and applied the two ends of the twisted tape to the skin on either side of the cut. "Butterflies will usually hold two halves of a cut that runs along the muscle, but one that cuts across always requires stitches," she informed him. "You might have to wait a while before you can get to the local sawbones."

As she spoke, she fashioned a row of the clever substitutions for stitches. "There," she declared. "That slash looked clean, but thereís moose manure on the hood. If it were my arm, Iíd opt for applying iodine before bandaging it, but thatíll hurt. Not as badly as an infection will, though." As she spoke, she glanced inquiringly at the man she aided.

"I agree," her charge stated evenly. "Daub it on."

Without further ado, the woman applied a liberal amount of the antiseptic, noting that the brawny stranger neither flinched nor went taut from the pain. Expertly, she bandaged the arm, and then held the coat so that the injured man could don it more easily.

Having walked around to the front of the vehicle, the traveler sighed as he observed the inert body of the moose, the yellowish-green stain in the snow attesting to the draining of the radiator, the crumpled hood, the dented fenders, the shattered headlights and grill, and the destruction wrought on the windshield.

"I need to get this wreck off the road," he observed worriedly.

"Right," the woman replied. "Iíve got a tow chain. Let me drag the moose off, first." Frowning, she added, "Youíre an out-of-state hunter, judging by the fancy rifle-cases on the back seat. This roadís likely to grow impassable both ahead and behind, right suddenly. Iíd be glad to tow your outfit to my house, which is at the foot of the hill, near the river. If this storm grows to whiteout intensity, you could get lost trying to walk to a ranch house, and freeze to death. Far better that you wait it out inside, where itís warm."

Touched by the neighborliness prompting that offer, the stranger yet hesitated. "Would your husband prefer that we ask him first?" he probed.

"I divorced my husband seven years ago," the woman stated bluntly. "This ranch belonged to my parents, who left it to me. Iím free to do exactly as I please. I wouldnít even wish freezing to death on a blasted crook sent up for robbing gas stations and convenience stores, let alone on a visitor to the area. So donít worry on that score."

So thatís why she so boldly approached the wreck: out of neighborly concern for someone possibly severely hurt, and in danger from the cold-whether or not he turned out to be a criminal.

His admiration taking a quantum leap, the stranger smiled for the first time since meeting the woman. His rugged face suddenly alight with warmth, he nodded as he replied, "Iíll gladly take you up on your offer. And Iíd appreciate your towing my vehicle onto your property."

"Iím Alison Haldane," the woman announced.

"Iím Manuel GonzŠlez," the stranger reciprocated, studying the faintly lined face notable for a pair of heavily lashed blue eyes that met his squarely. The black hat totally concealing the womanís hair, together with the soft black scarf wound around her throat, created an effect uncannily like the wimple of a nun. Attributing that odd perception to this blunt-spoken ranchwomanís serene self-possession, he added, "Let me assure you that Iíll not trespass on your hospitality any longer than is absolutely necessary."

Exhibiting the same efficiency with which she had dealt with the cut, Alison pulled a heavy chain from behind the seat of the pickup, wrapped an end around a hind leg of the dead moose, and slipped the hook over a link. After backing her truck to the proper position, she jumped out, shaking her head at the man using one hand to hook the chain around the ball hitch below her rear bumper.

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